Who was prouder?
Was it Yugoslavian coach Zeljko Obradovic? His team beat Russia 64-62 for the gold medal Sunday in the World Basketball Championship, and he did it representing a country still crippled by war and without missing stars including the NBA's Vlade Divac.Or was it American coach Rudy Tomjanovich? The much-criticized Americans - a composite of minor-league talent assembled in the last month when the NBA stars didn't play - won bronze, thrashing Greece 84-61.
The gold was a record fourth at the worlds for Yugoslavia. They might not have beaten an American Dream Team. However, a full-strength Yugoslavia just might have.
"After the embargo we played in four straight finals and won three times. It's incredible. We have a lot of reason to be very proud," Obradovic said.
"We had many problems, and players who weren't here. But we got this again," he added, cradling the gold medal hanging around his neck.
Center Zeljko Rebraca, playing where Divac would have, had 16 points and 11 rebounds. Dejan Bodiroga, a 6-foot-9 swingman, scored 11 points and was named tournament MVP.
Yugoslavia showed again it plays the best basketball outside of the United States. Following the lifting of war sanctions, Yugoslavia has won the '95 and '97 European titles, and was second in the '96 Olympics to Dream Team III.
Not only was Divac missing, so was injured star Predrag Danilovic. Also absent were two Yugoslavs with Greek passports who weren't allowed to play: forward Predrag Stojakovic, who will play next season with the Sacramento Kings, and 6-11 center Dragan Tarlac, who's one of the highest paid players in Europe with Greek club Olympiakos.
Russia, playing with the same core that lost to the United States in the finals in '94 - by 46 points - was led by Sergey Panov and Igor Koudellin with 14 points each.
"At the end, there were two great players, Djordjevic and Rebraca, who determined who would win," Russian coach Sergey Belov said.
For the Americans, guard Jimmy Oliver jokingly suggested he would gold plate his bronze medal.
"I'll have my bronze dipped in gold, and you guys do the same," he told his teammates.
The Dream Team might have won gold, but this bronze was cherished by a cast of hard-working journeymen who have bounced around the NBA, CBA and European leagues.
They dropped the semifinal 66-64 Saturday to Russia, blowing a 10-point lead in the final three minutes, but rebounded better than Greece, which lost to Yugoslavia 78-73 in overtime.
"These guys got as much out of what they have as any team I've been around," said Tomjanovich, who has won two NBA titles with the Houston Rockets. "They had to do it in a vacuum with very little media coverage.
"We were the team with the fewest fans here and always in a hostile situation," he added. "We were always hearing in the background, `These guys are rejects, those are guys that can't make it.' And they hung in there."
Largely ignored at home, they were termed by one Greek paper as the "lint after the wash."
Jason Sasser scored 23 points, Jimmy King 14 and Wendell Alexis 12. Greece, which shot an abysmal 35 percent overall, was led Dimitri Papanikolaou with 18.
"We're strong individuals," said forward Gerard King, who played in Italy last season. "Everybody on our team has been through the rough times. We know what it takes to bounce back and come out swinging."
David Wood, a 33-year-old veteran of 412 NBA games with eight different teams, exemplified the team's character.
"You always want to set your goals for the gold," he said. "But I can't think of anything I'm more proud of than this medal. It is probably the greatest accomplishment of my basketball career."
U.S. Ambassador to Greece Nicholas Burns, a fervent basketball fan, even got into the act as he met with U.S. players afterwards.
"They really weren't a team when they got here," he said. "They came together so much. We should really be proud of them."